


Not The Worst Idea

by celebel



Category: Cricket RPF
Genre: ALL THE FLUFF, Awkwardness, Christmas Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, but only for like 2 seconds, compared to some of the emotional devastation i've faced here, not even angst tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 04:14:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13138860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celebel/pseuds/celebel
Summary: Mitch can't wrap presents to save his life. Luckily his cute neighbour next door may be able to help...





	Not The Worst Idea

**Author's Note:**

> Done for the Christmas prompt "Character A can’t wrap gifts to save their life. Character B is their neighbor and can help" which can be found here: http://alloftheprompts.tumblr.com/post/134349883493/25-days-christmas-romance-challenge
> 
> So after a decade of lurking here and on Tumblr, this gremlin has finally decided to contribute and create a blog where noone can recognise her because it's Christmas here and I need to feel like I've accomplished something this year :)

"Jesus- Fuck!" Mitch yelled as the delicate wrapping paper tore in his large hands after what he was sure had been his hundredth attempt. He ripped the cheerful snowmen off the box and cast them to the ground, where they joined the ever-growing pile of their brethren who had encountered similar fates. He really shouldn't have left wrapping Christmas presents to the last minute, it really was the worst idea he'd had in a while. "Stupid, fucking wrapping paper-"

"Um, do you need some help there?" Came a soft voice from through the window. Mitch looked up and tried his best to keep his breathing steady. Looking though the open window from his own house was Mitch's neighbour, Pat. They hadn't interacted much other than the awkward handshakes and introductions they had exchanged on Pat's front porch when he had moved into the empty lot beside Mitch's a couple of months back, and the shy smiles and waves they traded in the early mornings whenever they saw each other before heading off to their respective jobs. As far as Mitch could tell from their limited interactions, Pat was polite, soft spoken, and had the prettiest eyes and the cutest dimples you would ever see on a guy-

"Yes," Mitch started after a too long pause, mentally slapping himself. He gestured to the pile of presents laid out before him. "I need to get all of these wrapped before a Christmas party with my family today and I could really use some help."

Pat gave a small huff of laughter and Mitch tried his best to repress the flush he felt creeping up his cheeks. God, this guy was adorable.

"Wouldn't it have been more convenient to have started with the wrapping before Christmas Day?" Pat said, placing his forearms on the window sill and leaning across.

"Yeah, probably." Mitch gave a small laugh and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, trying not to focus on how blue Pat's eyes were. "I've got to get these presents wrapped for my brother, his wife, their son, my sister, her husband, their daughter, mum, dad-"

"Yeah, I get it," smiled Pat, tilting his head to the side, causing some of his hair to fall out of place and into his eyes. Mitch curled his hands on the table to avoid standing up, leaning across the space between the two windows and brushing the wayward strands away. "I've got my two brothers and two sisters and their families as well as my parents. I guess Christmas does get pretty hectic."

"Tell me about it," Mitch said, feeling a smile of his own creeping across his face. "Speaking of which, don't you have any presents of your own to wrap?"

"Nah, got them done ages ago," Pat replied. "Already had the Christmas gathering yesterday anyway since one of my brothers is travelling today, so that's done and dusted."

"Oh," Mitch said dumbly, racking his brains for something else to say to keep the conversation going, all the while trying not to stare at the handsome man in front of him for too long to be creepy.

"So," Pat said after a beat of awkward silence. "I could give you a hand if you want?"

"Yes please," he replied, perhaps a bit too quickly. "I'd love that."

Mitch swore his heart skipped a beat at Pat's responding smile.

"Alright," he said. "I'll be over in a second."

"Yes, that'll be great," Mitch replied, standing as Pat shut the window with a click and disappeared from his sight, undoubtedly making his way to his house. As he walked down the corridor to the front door, he gave himself a hard slap across the face for sounding way too eager.

He placed a hand on the handle of the front door, closing his eyes and attempting to calm his breathing. Attempting to.

 _Just play it cool, Mitch,_ he thought. _You've got this._

He yanked the door open and was greeted with Pat's shy smile and blue eyes, loose strands of his brown hair fanning across his forehead in a way which shouldn't have been adorable and made his fingers itch.

_I don't got this._

"Hey," Mitch said, sounding slightly breathless. He stepped to the side, holding the door open as Pat stepped through the threshold, murmuring his thanks. If he could have, Mitch would have slapped himself again to stop the blush he felt dusting his cheeks at how close Pat was to him.

He led Pat through the hallway to the living room, trying to ignore the loud thumping in his chest and the blood roaring in his ears.

 _Get a hold of yourself, Mitchell!_ he scolded himself. _You're a grown man! Not some twelve year old schoolgirl talking to her crush for the first time!_

He took a seat at the table, gesturing for Pat to do the same. Almost immediately, Pat set to work.

"I reckon that if you get started on these regular shaped presents and I do the others, we'll be good to go, they're easier to wrap after all," Pat said, and Mitch was able to do little more than nod as he watched Pat's hands move in a blur, folding and taping the thin paper with a practiced efficiency. Mitch tried to do the same, but kept getting distracted by the way Pat's tongue stuck out of the corner of his mouth in concentration or the way his fingers danced across the gifts, handling them with a certain gentleness and finesse he had none of. That and the fact that he had no idea how to wrap presents in the first place.

Soon enough, Pat had finished wrapping everything in his pile and almost all of Mitch's while Mitch hadn't even gotten through his first. How had Pat managed to wrap a wine bottle? This guy was magic, there was no other logical explanation.

"How have you survived this long without being able to wrap presents?" Pat asked with a cocked eyebrow and a smile. This time, Mitch couldn't help the hot blush which raced across his features.

"Usually I get those holiday themed paper bags from the shops and shove everything into those."

"But this year you procrastinated buying them for too long and found that they were all sold out by the time you decided to go get them," Pat finished for Mitch, smile widening at his deepening blush which answered everything. He laughed and clapped Mitch on the shoulder.

_Nice eyes, nice smile, nice hair, nice laugh, and can wrap presents. Is there anything else which could make this man more perfect?_

So caught up in his thoughts, Mitch didn't notice that Pat had risen from his seat and taken a spot behind Mitch until he felt a warm form draped across his back as Pat leaned over his shoulder, aligning the gift and straightening out the crumpled paper. If Pat noticed the squeak of surprise he let out, he didn't comment.

"You see," Pat said, arms draped across Mitch's broad shoulders to reach the packaged beach ball he had gotten for Austin. "You need to place the gift here so that..."

Pat's words faded to the back of his mind, Mitch being distracted by the how nice Pat felt pressed against him- No, he was not supposed to be thinking about his neighbour in that way. It's just inappropriate and- He smells really nice- Christ, that's just creepy now. Have you no shame?- I wish he'd whisper in my ear like that more often- Oh my God, not now, boner-

"Mitch?" Pat's concerned tone pulled him back to the present.

"Uh, yes?" Was all he managed, as he turned his head and found himself face-to-face with Pat's pretty face. He swallowed, feeling heat climb up his neck to his cheeks.

"Do you think you could give it a shot now?"

'Um, I guess," he said, turning back to the gift and the paper before realising he hadn't heard a word of what Pat had just said. It shouldn't be too hard though, right? The paper was still creased in places from where Pat had demonstrated where to fold and where to set down the tape.

With his clumsy hands, he picked up an edge, folding it across the beach ball when suddenly, Pat's hands enveloped his, halting his movements.

"No, no," Pat said, yet Mitch heard the light laughter in his tone. He directed Mitch's hands to another corner of the paper. "You've got to start on this edge first so it's easier when you get to some of the later steps."

"Oh, yeah, right," he stuttered out as Pat moved his own hands and rested them on his shoulders, still leaning over to supervise Mitch's movements.

Every time Mitch made an error, Pat was there to correct it with a light touch and a huffed laugh into the shell of his ear, murmuring at how useless he was at wrapping. Mitch could only manage an awkward, strangled laugh each time. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, Mitch had a wrapped present in his hands.

"You did it!" Pat said, squeezing Mitch's shoulders. Mitch laughed in pure elation, chucking the gift in the air and catching it in celebration.

"I can't believe it, Patty! I did it!" he grinned, turning to face his neighbour and quickly found his own face mere inches from the other man's. Pat's look of joy was quickly replaced with something else, something Mitch couldn't identify.

"Pat?" Mitch said, his voice cracking slightly as Pat seemed to lean in closer ever so slightly, one hand tightening around his shoulder and the other drifting lower down his arm, fingers dragging tantalisingly across his bicep. Mitch gulped, dry mouth falling open slightly.

"Mitch," Pat all but whispered, eyes dark. He licked his lips and Mitch found his gaze drawn towards his pretty mouth before his eyes flicked back up again. With a small smirk, Pat's eyes fell shut, dark lashes fanning across his red cheeks. Mitch found himself doing the same, his lids falling and head tilting in anticipation of what was to come-

A piercing shriek rang through the house and both of them sprang apart from each other. Blindly, Mitch fumbled for his phone, hitting the answer button and holding it to his ear.

"Yeah?" he asked, hoping he didn't sound too out of breath.

"Mitch." Shaun's voice echoed down the line and Mitch bit back an insult. Trust Shaun to be calling at the absolute worst time. "It's half past six."

"Thanks, Shaun," Mitch said, rolling his eyes like a petulant child. "I can tell the time."

"Of course you can, Mitchell," Shaun said cooly. Shaun was using his full name. This wasn't good. "And do you remember what time the party was meant to start?"

"Yeah, at six- oh..."

"Yes, Mitchell," Shaun said mockingly. "It started half an hour ago. Where are you?"

"I got distracted," Mitch fired back, desperately searching for an appropriate excuse. "I was... out for a run and lost track of time."

"Out for a run? On a Monday evening?" Shaun bit out, mock surprise evident in his words. "Mitchell Ross Marsh, doing exercise during the evening, on a Monday of all days? And on a holiday for that matter-"

"Oi, knock it off, Shaun," Mitch growled. He would've said more but a female voice called out in the background of the call. Mel. Bless her soul. Shaun shouted something back in response.

"Just try get here within the next hour," he sighed. "We'll talk about this later."

"Alright, see you at the party," Mitch said, and Shaun muttered what sounded vaguely like a goodbye over the phone before the line went dead. Mitch set his phone down on the table with a long exhale, turning to Pat who was stood in the middle of the room awkwardly, running a hand through his hair and shifting his weight from foot-to-foot as he waited for Mitch to finish his phone call. There was still a red tint high on his cheeks.

"Sorry that took so long," he said, eyes focused on his scuffed shoes. "You obviously have somewhere to be right now."

"Yeah," he said, standing from his seat, trying to ignore the awkward tension which had just developed between them in the place of the lost moment. "I'll show you out."

At the door, Pat was still determinately avoiding Mitch's gaze, even as he mumbled his goodbyes and began to turn to walk away.

"Pat, wait," Mitch said, grabbing Pat's wrist, stopping him. Pat stiffened and Mitch immediately let go, not sure of what had just overcome him. He took a step back, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. "Thanks, I guess. For helping me with wrapping the presents."

"No problems." Pat gave a strained laugh and ran a hand through his hair in an effort to straighten it but instead succeeded in dislodging more locks, sending them tumbling messily across his pale forehead.

"Here, let me," Mitch said, unable to stop himself any longer. Pat looked at him, more out of surprise than anything as he carefully smoothed his hair back into place with the gentlest touch he could muster. There was a flash of something in Pat's eyes and his features seemed to relax back into the shy, endearing smile Mitch saw every day. Mitch felt the corners of his lips tugging upwards.

"After the party, 'Die Hard' is showing later tonight," Pat said. "If you're up for it, that is," he quickly added on. Mitch's smile grew slightly wider and he hoped he wasn't grinning like a lunatic.

"I would love to," he said. "Noone deserves to be alone on Christmas anyway."

"Yeah," Pat gave a small laugh, turning his head slightly to try to hide the blush of his own. He looked back up at Mitch and this time, Mitch started back into those blue, blue eyes without shame. "I'll see you soon, but until then, Merry Christmas."

"Gotcha, Merry Christmas to you too," he replied and Pat beamed at him one last time before turning and walking back to his house. Halfway back, he turned, looking over his shoulder to give Mitch a small see-you-later wave at which Mitch returned after a second of realisation that he'd just been standing in his doorway watching Pat like an absolute creep for the past ten seconds. Not his fault Pat had a great ass.

Back in his house, he bundled all of his presents up in his arms and made his way to the car, a spring in his step and a goofy grin plastered across his face. Maybe leaving wrapping Christmas presents to the last minute hadn't been the worst idea after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading :D
> 
> You can find me on Tumblr @ somesunnyda-y
> 
> Don't be alarmed if a blank blog pops up, it's still a work in progress (and probably will be until I stop procrastinating) :)
> 
> Have a very Merry Christmas this year x


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